him because it is attached to something else, or
included in something else, or results from something else, which is
granted to the President. There is certainly no specific grant; it is a
power, therefore, the existence of which, if proved at all, is to be
proved by inference and argument. In the only instance in which the
Constitution speaks of removal from office, as I have already said, it
speaks of it as the exercise of _judicial_ power; that is to say, it
speaks of it as one part of the judgment of the Senate, in cases of
conviction on impeachment. No other mention is made, in the whole
instrument, of any power of removal. Whence, then, is the power derived
to the President?

It is usually said, by those who maintain its existence in the single
hands of the President, that the power is derived from that clause of
the Constitution which says, "The executive power shall be vested in a
President." The power of removal, they argue, is, in its nature, an
executive power; and, as the executive power is thus vested in the
President, the power of removal is necessarily included.

It is true, that the Constitution declares that the executive power
shall be vested in the President; but the first question which then
arises is, _What is executive power? What is the degree, and what are
the limitations?_ Executive power is not a thing so well known, and so
accurately defined, as that the written constitution of a limited
government can be supposed to have conferred it in the lump. What _is_
executive power? What are its boundaries? What model or example had the
framers of the Constitution in their minds, when they spoke of
"executive power"? Did they mean executive power as known in England, or
as known in France, or as known in Russia? Did they take it as defined
by Montesquieu, by Burlamaqui, or by De Lolme? All these differ from one
another as to the extent of the executive power of government. What,
then, was intended by "the executive power"? Now, Sir, I think it
perfectly plain and manifest, that, although the framers of the
Constitution meant to confer executive power on the President, yet they
meant to define and limit that power, and to confer no more than they
did thus define and limit. When they say it shall be vested in a
President, they mean that one magistrate, to be called a President,
shall hold the executive authority; but they mean, further, that he
shall hold this authority according to the grants and lim